Title

Speakers

Streaming Media

Document Type

Video

Date

Fall 10-10-2017

Abstract

How well a person’s brain functions—and how it was operating during a specific timeframe, is a question often raised in the legal system. What was the defendant’s mental state at the time of a criminal act? Does a brain abnormality suggest diminished responsibility? Civil litigants may argue about a person’s competence when it comes to entering into contracts, how much psychological trauma they are experiencing or whether their mental state makes them eligible to receive benefits.

Owen D. Jones, the New York Alumni Chancellor’s Chair in Law and professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, discussed how neuroscience and behavior interconnects with law at Georgia State University College of Law’s 60th Henry J. Miller Distinguished Lecture Series held in the Marjorie & Ralph Knowles Conference Center at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 10.